Are children’s memory illusions created differently from those of adults? Evidence from levels-of-processing and divided attention paradigms

Wimmer, Marina C.; Howe, Mark L.

Abstract

In two experiments, we investigated the robustness and automaticity of adults’ and children’s generation of false memories by using a levels-of-processing paradigm (Experiment 1) and a divided attention paradigm (Experiment 2). The first experiment revealed that when information was encoded at a shallow level, true recognition rates decreased for all ages. For false recognition, when information was encoded on a shallow level, we found a different pattern for young children compared with that for older children and adults. False recognition rates were related to the overall amount of correctly remembered information for 7-year-olds, whereas no such association was found for the other age groups. In the second experiment, divided attention decreased true recognition for all ages. In contrast, children’s (7- and 11-year-olds) false recognition rates were again dependent on the overall amount of correctly remembered information, whereas adults’ false recognition was left unaffected. Overall, children’s false recognition rates changed when levels of processing or divided attention was manipulated in comparison with adults. Together, these results suggest that there may be both quantitative and qualitative changes in false memory rates with age.

Citation

Wimmer, M. C., & Howe, M. L. (2010). Are children’s memory illusions created differently from those of adults? Evidence from levels-of-processing and divided attention paradigms. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107(1), 31-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.03.003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Apr 24, 2010
• Publication Date: 2010-09
• Deposit Date: May 11, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0022-0965
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 107
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 31-49
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.03.003
• Keywords: False memories, Memory development, Automaticity, Levels of processing, Divided attention, DRM paradigm
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2657085